


Learning To Live

by SleepyGamer00974



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Drama & Romance, F/M, Father Figures, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Hank Anderson Hates Androids, I might draw him sometime, Identity Issues, Past Relationship(s), Self-Doubt, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Suggestive Themes, Swearing, Violence, Wade is an OC, everywhere, preset last name, reader hates androids too, reader is a bit of a cold bitch at first, reader is female, with gavin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:35:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23700187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepyGamer00974/pseuds/SleepyGamer00974
Summary: Three years of being in the homicide unit, one regrettable relationship with a colleague and a growing distaste for androids, Marsdon is suddenly moved to a new investigation.Partnering up with Hank and some machine that calls itself Connor is sure to uproot your beliefs.Try not to fall for the realistic imitation deviancy gives, or see the humanity in the things you've learned to hate.But who can resist those puppy-dog eyes?In the heat of it all, does Connor have the courage to choose a side?And in the pressure of conflicting morals, will you support him?Basically another Reader/Hank/Connor detective trio! Marsdon is just a preset last name, but you can use your first name. I just wanted to avoid Y/N's.
Relationships: Connor (Detroit: Become Human)/Reader
Comments: 8
Kudos: 33





	1. The Saving Curse (Feat. Waiting For Hank...)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Thanks for clicking. I 'd really appreciate constructive feedback, I'm trying my hardest to improve the quality of my writing, so comments are welcomed! I know this is a somewhat played out idea on the Connor/reader works but I hope I can put a twist on everything that keeps ya comin' back ;)  
> .  
> What can I say? I live for the spicy banter between Marsdon and Reed.

You were drowning in all these cases. Paperwork to get done, murders to solve, statements to take. They were working you to the bone. Did they think you were a damn machine? 

You spat out a huff of frustration and scraped a hand down your face. Setting down your datapad you leaned back in that too well-known chair to take a breather. It took a second for you to focus back into the room, the bored buzz of DPD Central Station making itself present again. Wade Rogers, your desk buddy, smiled at you sympathetically. Under his close, down-turned eyes, shadows had started to grow on his tan skin. He was a tall man with a strong build, stubble lined his wide jaw. He was bald, but that was normal for a man in his mid 50’s. That didn’t stop you from teasing him about it though. Wade was a bright ball of sunshine in this grey building, a friendly person to anyone and anything and a stranger to seemingly no one. He was quite opinionated, as you had begrudgingly found out over the last 3 years. An avid android rights supporter, and an eager rant-goer. You didn’t know how he did it, still thinking well of deviants even after seeing the carnage in their wake. The scent of coffee wafted at you from the nearby break room and you lazily tipped your cup to find it empty. Time for a much-needed refill.

You scanned the station, watching other detectives and lieutenants submerged in their own paperwork and the occasional civilian waiting for their turn with some overloaded officer. Androids were parked motionless against the back wall, waiting for a human to come to give them directions. You didn’t like the way they bore into the back of the next one's head as if their own head was blank. You knew better than to think that those androids couldn’t think for themselves, you had seen too many cases of assault and homicide at the hands of one of them. 

You had been a police officer for a long time, starting when you were 21, but had only moved to Detroit 3 years ago. It was a stressful time, trying to adjust to a new social and work life in a city where you knew no one. It left you with a lot of unnecessary bite to your new colleagues. First impressions didn’t ultimately matter though as you made a good name for yourself taking a bullet for your partner and still successfully capturing a criminal a few months in. That fucker hurt, and you still had a tremor in your left arm. Your pain earned you a good favor with Fowler, and you proved yourself reliable to him quickly. Wins come with prices though, you thought as you threw some files on top of a tower you had going, because I’m the new go-to.

You got pulled from your annoyment by the man himself. Fowler called your name, looking more troubled than his usual grumpy self did. 

“Marsdon. My office.” Direct and snappy, just like him. Fowler didn’t wait for you to respond, spinning on his heel and trudging right back to his glass box of anger. You wordlessly followed, letting the door slide closed behind you. Sitting down opposite Fowler across from his cluttered desk he waited for you to get settled into your seat.

“I know your workload has been heavier than anyone else's in the DPD right now. Everyone's overloaded. More and more cases are coming in, from unsolvable murders to bastards caught with the fuckin weapon in their hands and you’re taking them all. It’s too damn much,” he grumbled, “Christ, I’ve seen that fuckin’ tower you’ve got going on your desk and, quite frankly, it’s depressing.” You dropped your head with a chuckle of agreement. Fowler leaned onto his elbows, cracking his knuckles as he spoke. He was just intimidating on instinct, you figured.

“A new opportunity has just opened up. With more androids committing crimes the DPD can’t just ignore the surge in deviants. It's now a criminal investigation and I’m assigning you and Lieutenant Anderson to it. All your current cases are going to be spread throughout the homicide department and you’re gonna focus on this investigation.” You could have cried tears of joy. Working one investigation in exchange for all your current cases being taken over was a saving grace! Sure, it was going to be all androids, but you could hold your distaste for this. Fowler wasn’t done though,

“Cyberlife has chosen to send a prototype android. A detective android or something along that shit. It’s going to act as your partner, help along the way and that crap.” Fowler paused, giving you a second to reply. ...Alright, another cost you didn’t mind paying. But then the equation clicked. You _and_ Anderson with an android? Two people, who hated androids, had to supervise some new, expensive tin can? Maybe this was a saving curse.

“Don’t know how I feel about this android, captain,” you spoke warily. His brow creased,

“It doesn’t matter, just treat it like a partner and get your shit done. Anderson’s there with you-”

“Exactly!” You half-laughed, “If I don’t, he’s going to choke the thing on sight! Why not ask Rogers?” Fowler looked pissed at your last comment. Oh no.

“Fine, I can not be nice to you and give the investigation to Rogers and you can have _all_ of _his_ cases instead? How would-” He stopped himself, calming down. “Look, you’re a perfectly capable detective and a reliable lead. Technically, you’ll be taking secondary due to rank but you know Anderson. I need you in this case because I _trust_ your responsibility, and Anderson needs to be on this case because he needs a win,” his definitive tone told this was the end of discussion. _Dammit._ You stood, preparing to leave,

“Alright, thanks, captain.” 

“Email all your case files on the datapad to me, leave the files where they are, I’ll sort it,” was all he gave you in return. Tough love, you guessed as you started off back towards your desk.

“So? What’d he say?” Wade asked like a kid asking a friend returning from the principal's office. You snorted at his blatant nosiness,

“I just got all my current cases lifted off of me,” You smirked cockily. Wade’s jaw dropped with a ‘What!’ and you lifted your thumb and forefinger to your chin, striking a dumb pose. 

“I’ve been assigned a new investigation with Anderson. Apparently some new type of android is being sent in to work with us too.” That really got his attention. His eyes sparkled at you with excitement whilst he asked, 

“What kind of ‘new type’ are we talking about here?” You sighed at the stupid glee he got from just the idea of a new android,

“A detective one. It’s our….partner? We’re in a trio for some reason.” You didn’t hide how skeptical you were as you picked up your cup and piled files on top of each other. 

“This is _great!_ Not only do you get a front seat on the capability of androids but you get to know one personally! Maybe then you can finally see just how human they can be-” You spaced out of what Wade was ranting about. Too focused on what was across the room from you.

Curiously slipping headphones onto its head, an android was hovering above Anderson's desk. You only had a side profile of it from where you were so you couldn’t tell much but it definitely wasn’t any of the same models as the other androids the Central Station had. It was wearing a dark grey suit, black dress shoes and a standard blue LED arm wrap. It set down the headphones and seemed to think for a second. The android gave the station a once over, eyes locking onto your own when it landed on you.

“Speak of the devil,” You muttered, cutting Wade short. He must have trailed down your sights to the android if his excited squeal that followed said anything. It smiled at you, eyebrows raised high above friendly hazel irises.

“Detective Marsdon,” it spoke in a chirpy tone as if it was happy to see you, “My name is Connor. I’m the android sent by cyberlife. I’ve been assigned to this investigation with you and lieutenant Anderson.” You gave it a quiet nod of recognition, not sure if you could be so friendly in return. It waited for you to reply, puppy dog eyes shining and blue LED ring glowing. When you didn’t say anything, it moved on, oblivious to your clear awkwardness.

“I’m really glad to be working with you, detective! I know you are a young detective but I’m sure you will prove more than that! I hope we can work together effectively as partners,” it sang at you, moving right next to your seat. Its head bobbed as he spoke, like he was carefully describing something a dumb human needed extra help with. It made you feel like a child. You knew that you might be a little too cold to strangers, worse yet to androids, but you didn’t stop yourself. This android was being too obnoxiously buddy-buddy for meeting you for the first time, it even had the gall to try and stand so grossly close to you, it pissed you off.

“I don’t know how much common sense they programmed into your system but you can’t just walk up to someone you’ve never met before and talk like you know them, it’s creepy,” You half-growled, knowing you didn’t have a real reason to be angry at this android.

“I was designed to be able to scan and recognize faces off of a data-”

“Look, I’m not askin’. Just don’t talk to me like you know me, android.” It’s LED spun a lemon yellow and it just silently nodded it's head and moved on. How robotic. You huffed, knowing that your aggression was getting you nowhere,

“Anderson isn’t here yet so… I don’t know, go explore the big new world that is the DPD? I have stuff to do." It replied with a simple, ‘yes, detective’, before walking off, curiously staring at police androids that were stationed at the walls as it went. 

Glad that ‘Connor’ was out of the way, you continued piling files onto the corner of your desk. Stacking your pens and pencils back into their pot you heard Wade sigh.

“He was so friendly, and you returned his greeting with a nod? I can’t figure you out, Marsdon,” he groaned, sounding like the disappointed father he was being. You couldn’t deny the pang of guilt that played a string in your heart. Connor _was_ trying his hardest to be nice to you, and you _had_ returned with bitter, mean comments. You froze a little in place, your own words replaying in your head. But Connor’s blue armband came to mind, and his unfeeling nod even after your unnecessary bite reminded you that this was an android you were dealing with.

You blew a raspberry at Wade, he just rolled his eyes. 

“You always say how much you didn’t want to do what you were doing in that first month you were here,” Wade spoke softly, and you felt your resolve melt, “maybe don’t do that again? Try and be nicer to Connor, alright?” 

“That was different, Wade,” You retorted, obviously sounding as unjustified as you were beginning to feel. Scooping up your coffee cup you rushed off towards the break room.

_Perhaps you could be a_ **_bit_ **_nicer to Connor. To stop your own guilt, not for his ‘feelings’_ , you hastily added to yourself.

The first thing you came to in the break room was the back of Reed. _Great._ You two had been back and forth since you joined, meeting him on your second case; Classic coked-up homicide, if you remembered right. He was a complete ass, a dickhead of the tallest order... Three weeks and multiple cases where you crossed paths, it only took you a bit of his uncomfortable ‘flirting’ and your need for some stress release for you two to end up at his place. It didn’t last long. You couldn’t tolerate his willingness to beat up androids. It wasn’t for the androids' sake, of course. It was just that wanting to harm such humanoid things, even if they weren’t human, connoted that he _might just_ have some violent tendencies to release. You already worked for the damn homicide unit, you didn’t need any more violence in your life. You couldn’t lie it was fine for as long as it lasted, and your cut off was clean so you remained friends after.

Well, friendly enemies. He still laid on his creepy flirting, you still verbally tried to kick his ass.

Gavin was yelling at something, as per usual, and from the faint blue glow in the dimmed room you assumed it was an android. Reed stepped forward, puffing up his chest at it. You were going to move to get to the coffee machine, not wanting to speak to Gavin right now but from out behind his shoulder, you made out Connor's neutral face. Its brow was knotted, but it remained motionless, even as Reed moved to jab a finger into its shoulder.

“Make me a coffee, robot,” Reed ordered. You watched, prepared to see the sad sight of something actually _listening_ to Gavin. But Connor lingered, blankly staring at Gavin.

“I’m sorry, detective, I only take orders from Detective Marsdon and Lieutenant Anderson,” it spoke. You snickered, seeing the smoke fume out of Reed’s ears. He really thought he was the top man, didn’t he? ‘How could something deny _me_?’ you mocked in an arrogant Gavin voice. This was fun to watch, you smiled, feeling an odd sense of pride that your android was this loyal. But Reed wound back, landing a useless blow to the android's stomach. You saw the nonexistent breath get knocked out of Connor as he folded over, landing on its knee and catching itself on its fist. Red LED swirling, he looked pained.

You were definitely mad just because it was Gavin. Or because you would have to fill out the paperwork if this android broke. Or because you were meant to be supervising the prototype so the blame for anything would be put on you. Those were the only reasons, for sure. Either way, you yelled a little louder than you intended,

“Oi, asshat, the fuck d’you think you’re doing?” You spat, Reed spun on his heels, evil smirk finding its way onto his face immediately, as if every second he saw you he just saw the nights you spent together. “That androids worth more money than anything you could ever hope to amount to, so if you break it I’m returning the damn favor,” You took a step towards Gavin, snarling at the way he looked at you, “Who knows? Maybe another punch to the face will fix that fucked up nose you got yourself?” His cocky joy faded slightly and he crossed his arms. You ignored the fact he was a head taller than you.

“When did you get this prick as a new fuckbuddy, Marsdon? I thought you hated androids.” Every word in his belligerent voice made you want to tear your ears off. You were gagging on the stench of self-gratification. He turned to a nearby cop you couldn’t name-a lady stood at a table-and waved to her to follow him. Luckily, he was leaving. You couldn’t help yourself,

“Don’t sprain your own neck trying to suck your own dick, Reed, your neck won’t be able to crane down that damn far.” 

He scoffed from the entrance, 

“Don’t need to, you seemed _perfectly willing_ to.”

“In your dreams!” You hissed, feeling the heat rush to your face.

“Exactly, sweetheart,” He cackled, finally striding off down the hall.

‘UGH!’ Repulsion dripped from your voice. Just wanting to forget what you heard, you turned to Connor. It hadn’t stood up yet, it’s LED circling in yellow thought. Placing a hand more gently than you wanted to on its shoulder, you helped it up. It smiled, with a small ‘thank you’.

What the hell were you doing? Its model number stuck out, armband screaming ‘I’m an android!’ at you. Backing away, you dodged around it to make yourself a coffee. You felt its eyes follow you but when you glance over Connor seemed to be deep in thought. Wasn’t processing time like half a second for these things? 

“Lieutenant Anderson has arrived, I’m going to go greet him,” Connor spoke. You had never heard an android speak with so much candid autonomy to a human, it definitely set it apart from the lifeless blanks that lined the station walls. 

  
  


After finishing your drink and praising whoever brought in the much-needed donuts, 10 minutes had passed. The news seemed to grow worse by the day, political tensions escalating, deviant cases inclining, drug addictions festering. You tore yourself away from the TV screen, what was happening to the world? Your existential crisis didn’t matter right now, you scolded yourself, you had an investigation to get to, and a lieutenant to greet. You had barely just swiped your phone off the tabletop, had only just turned your view out of the break room. And there across the building, was something you had predicted- Anderson choking Connor up against his cubicle wall by its collar. _Called it._ Though you were sure the android had pissed off the Lieutenant somehow, you rushed over. 

“Lieutenant!” You got Anderson's attention. With one last warning glare and teeth grit to Connor, he turned to you looking like he was facing a bullfighter. “Y/n Marsdon. Looks like we'll be partnering up for this investigation.”

“I know your name, Marsdon,” He huffed before stopping himself and cooling off, “desk across from me is open, use that.” You gave him a smile and a determined nod, going to go get your stuff. He was the superior in rank and experience here. Something about the brash introduction and immediate reconsideration reminded you of yourself. Was that how you came off to other people? To Connor?

You didn’t know why you thought that last bit.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. Personality  (Feat. On The Run)

You found yourself in the cold on a street downtown. Connor had chosen a recent case - an AX400 assault committed last night- and you had begrudgingly followed an androids orders. _Ravendale,_ you sighed. It was definitely going to be hard to try and find a deviant android with barely any potential witnesses on this half-dead street. It was a sad sight, abandoned houses and cars plastered with hopeless promises of a better future. 

But at least you weren’t in that car anymore. 

Hank had driven the two of you and Connor here, still childishly fuming that he was even there, whilst you silently watched the android in the back awe out the window like a child. You could see it in the wing mirror closest to you, still neutral eyes radiating that young curiosity. It made sense when you had thought about it, Connor was technically new to the world and experiencing things for the first time past an index coded into it. A damn realistic imitation, even as its face stayed painfully passive. Connor’s LED had stayed yellow as he tossed a coin around in its hands. Like it was lost in its mind. You couldn’t help wondering what it was like to be in its position. 

You had taken in its design. From the lean, slim-fit suit jacket to the strands of hair hanging from its head. You couldn’t lie, he was attractive. But a pretty face wasn’t going to butter you up enough to like an android.

Whilst you were lost in your examination, it had caught your stares. You had instinctively and pathetically snarled at it, despite the obvious heat in your cheeks showing your embarrassment. Even so, its ring turned blue and smiled at you like a pup seeing its owner. Burying yourself in your phone became your comfort blanket and you only shot quick glances after that.

You recounted your list of possible hiding spots a rogue android could stay at. You had the house, the motel, any of the backstreets, anywhere in this area. You huffed, stumped. Connor was still standing right outside the car. It would never not be weird to see such emotionless humanoid things like androids, but it was a bit funny to have a juxtaposed Connor standing completely still amongst a lot of busy human cops. It looked so out of place. You saw its LED flickering blue among the other glowing signals on it and decided it probably didn’t care. Anderson's gaze crossed with yours, who was also looking at Connor, and you raised a small smile at him. He didn’t return it, instead, he walked towards Connor and you went to meet him in the middle. At the sight of you two heading towards it, Connor moved for the first time in a while.

The android didn’t waste a second,

“It took the first bus that came along and stayed at the end of the line. Its decision wasn’t planned, it was driven by fear.”

“Androids don’t feel fear,” Anderson corrected.

“Deviants do,” Connor said, a hint of smugness in its voice but you were sure you were hearing things.

“They get overwhelmed by their emotions and make irrational decisions,” Connor pointed out.

“Maybe we’ve got more in common than we think,” you mumbled. Anderson gave a small huff of agreement. Connor looked between the two of you and the silence that prickled everyone's ears. You were definitely a long way from partners. The pause ended when Anderson took lead, turning to Connor

“Ah well, that still doesn’t tell us where it went.” 

“It didn’t have a plan, and it had nowhere to go.” Connor conceptualized and you followed its lead.

“Then it couldn’t have gotten far..” Connor looked at you blankly, Anderson nodded thoughtfully.

“Maybe,” he added.

“It wouldn’t have strayed far from the bus stop. Afraid and alone, it wouldn’t risk adventuring much. My best guess is the abandoned house.” Connor pointed behind you. You agreed with it, an abandoned house, on sale, that looked too haunted to ever be sold. It was a guaranteed no-human zone. And if you were a deviant looking to hide from everyone, that would be pretty ideal. But you weren’t an android deviant, you were a squishy human, and finding a way into that horror set looked tiring. 

“There is also a motel nearby.” You pointed out.

“How would an android even pay for that?” Hank questioned.

“Pretending to be human?” You theorized.

“A man who claimed to have fallen asleep in the dry cleaners said his clothes were stolen.” Connor supported.

“Android maids are made to run errands and maintain things. I’ve read that they can detect what part is broken in most common household appliances and instantly order them. The android could have just used their owner's account whilst dressed in other clothes.” You ran through things in your mind. You had considered buying one before, but then you were assigned to the homocide unit and suddenly owning one seemed like more of a hazard than anything.

Connor tipped its head at you. 

“We had time in the car, I did some background,” you explained, earning a gratifying ‘Nice thinking.’ from Anderson. It was a small step, but it felt like a big victory.

“But surely the android at the desk would have known the deviant wasn’t human when it connected to pay,” Connor said, LED flickering yellow again.

“Maybe the other android was deviant too, then it wouldn’t report a fellow deviant. Maybe it got some mercy out of it?” Anderson speculated. You shook your head, running your finger across your bottom lip. 

“Unlikely,” You sighed. The androids gaze lingered on you, probably processing different possibilities.

“No, deviancy is an isolated error, a deviant can’t make another android a deviant. The only way I see that happening is if they connected and transferred new code,” the detective thought out loud. 

  
  


You had the motel checked. The human receptionist had no recollection of an android coming in. That didn’t clear all your suspicion though. You had seen people fall for the simulation of deviancy before. Leaning against a dull lamppost you stretched the tension out of you with a yawn.

“Man, I’m hungry,” you commented, pulling the dark red, leather jacket you had over a simple, black blouse tighter around you. Black jeans held by a belt, used boots and a guitar pick necklace on, you realized you probably weren’t best dressed for the weather. Idly cracking your knuckles, daydreams about your bed at home took over.

“After we are done here we can go get food, detective,” Connor's voice suggested from nowhere. You stiffened, the fucker had snuck up on you.

“Jesus Christ, Connor! Where the fuck’d you come from? Be a little more present in the room, for fuck's sake!” You shouted, cheeks pink with a startle. 

“...But detective, we’re outside?” It said innocently. Opening your mouth to give it more of a piece of your mind, you stopped. Connor was smirking at you, Cheshire cat eyes laughing at its own stupid pun. It looked like it was going to chuckle. _Can androids even do that?_

You crossed your arms, running your eyes down it. 

“When did they start making smartasses, huh?”

“When they made me, I'm assuming, detective,” its tone was light. Falsely pure, playing it off as a logical assessment. But there was a quip behind it. _What the fuck are you?_ Personality in these simulations just kept on getting deeper. You furrowed your brows at him, not sure how to feel. It waited for a little like it wanted you to soak in its joke,

“I’m sorry, detective, I’ll try not to scare you again.”

“Scare me? You think you scared me?!” You stuttered incredulously, knowing your brashness was coming off as pompous. Your face burned. With lidded eyes it said,

“Of course not, detective.” _Creature,_ you scorned at its knowing smile.

“Come on, if it wasn’t that the motel we’re left with the house.”

  
  
  


Connor took quick steps forward. Stopping momentarily in the middle of the road. Its LED threw a bit of red around the ring of yellow. You glanced at Anderson, who was equally confused, and followed.

“I’m going to search the house, you two can stay here.” It knelt down at the fence, bending up the bottom to crawl under. It held it for a second. Connor had a revelation,

“There’s therium on the gate, an android was definitely here.” You were just about to ask what that was when Anderson grabbed your shoulder.

“Also known as blue blood, heh,” he said, puffed up ego dripping from his voice. You grinned, happy that your superior was finally out of his angry episode.

“Also known as blue blood, yes,” Connor confirmed, giving a crooked smile in Anderson and your direction. You gave them both a puzzled look and Anderson just waved a dismissive hand. Connor continued climbing under the fence, getting on its hand and knees and crawling its way under. Once on the other side, it stood up and brushed himself off and did its routine tie fix. The Android didn't even look back before taking off towards the door. There was something so professionally messy about the way it moved.

“May as well just wait to see what the news is,” you shrugged and pulled out your phone. Anderson did the same. You blinked when a droplet hit your phone screen. _Typical Detroit_ , always raining. As the drizzle started to escalate your colleagues ducked under building doorways and find cover. You watched a rather young looking mother run with her girl for cover too, the girl squealing at the rain. You dipped your head lower, making sure your phone was under your head and out of the rain.

“Detective! The Android was in the house, it's escaping!” You almost dropped your phone when Connor's voice yelled through the walkie talkie strapped to your waist. You pocketed your phone sprinting around the edge of the gate. You assumed Anderson followed by the significantly heavier footsteps behind you.

“Which way are you coming out of!?” You panted back.

“What? The front! Didn't you see them run past you?! It's a female AX400 with a child, I think it's a girl.” You skidded to a halt, Anderson almost crashing into you. 

“Shit I did!” Heading back the way you came, you saw Connor sprinting across the road, you followed it, brushing past some cars parked in the way. You trailed Connor. It was fast, you just about kept up. You turned the last time to get hit in the face with a highway and a gate, the deviant and child already dangerously dodging cars to get to the other side. Anderson lagged behind a bit, just about ready to lie down by the time he got there. Connor stared intensely at the deviants, LED turning red. You were sure you almost bit through your lip when the little girl fell and the deviant ran back to drag her further towards death. Connor jumped up the gate and Anderson pulled him down quickly.

“What the fuck are you doing!?”

“We can't let them get away!” Connor yelled over the road of cars whizzing past. You stepped closer to Connor, knowing what it was thinking. 

“Are you crazy?! They'll never make it to the other side! You’ll die!” Anderson stressed.

“I can't take that chance!” Connor said, clawing at the gate to climb again. This time you were the one to pull it down. You knew it could get up, it could probably lift you like you were a twig, but it didn't. It just stared at you, LED yellow with a chunk of red circling round. 

“You are _not_ getting yourself killed and leaving me and Anderson with all the paperwork!” You stressed, hand still gripping its shoulder as a warning. 

“They’re gone,” Anderson said. Unclenching your fist and releasing Connor, you tried to ignore how much Connor _and_ Anderson were scanning your reaction. You let out a breath you had been holding, and softened your tone. 

“At least the kid’s alright,” You turned to Anderson, “ Now that we’re done with cardio, let’s finish and get some food to eat before I fuckin’ starve?”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now I ain't saying think Claire from Resident Evil when I describe Marsdon's clothes. 
> 
> But think Claire.


	3. Personal Issues (Feat. The Nest)

This mission was going to be more complicated than Amanda had let on. Connor had been able to calculate that from the start. Amanda wasn’t giving him the whole picture. It was to be expected that the deviant would cause unpredictable obstacles, that was definite, but his emotional and distant partners weren’t foreseen. Lieutenant Anderson was a hard-boiled and quite expressive man if his askew collar and Anderson's desk wall had given him anything. Detective Marsdon was willing to show anger but when it came to feelings, was quite reserved. She seemed to always play things off with a show of teeth. Or maybe Connors’ presence really did bring her just frustration? He wasn’t sure yet. 

Both were tough layers of ice to crack, but he knew his social interaction code would eventually prevail. Anderson was already lifting his attitude, granted extremely slowly but it was still happening. Marsdon, however, was not. Her doubts and questions showed in her eyes, but they weren’t strong enough to change anything in her attitude. 

At least his teasing had worked. Marsdon had crossed her arms, but the blood rising to her cheeks and heart rate had said enough. He was going to do that more.  _ For the case _ , of course. Connor watched his instability warning with a denying conscience. This investigation-  _ his mission _ \- would run smoother if his partners liked him enough to cooperate is how Connor reasoned it. 

He could still playback the detective running her finger across her lip, impressing Anderson. Connor had caught her staring with curiosity too, he was just doing the same to answer his own queries. He was made to imitate humans after all. 

She had gotten angry at Reed, someone he thought best to avoid especially after the things he said to Marsdon and defended him. Connor knew he couldn’t  _ feel _ grateful, but he knew Marsdon was going to be a helpful hand in his mission at that point. Even if she had stopped him from his goal entirely at that highway, Anderson had too. A tight grip on his shoulders and something on their faces made him decide that their decision was a reasonable one. _He had stopped for the mission._ Getting himself destroyed would be a setback. He needed them to like him. Androids are made to listen to humans, only deviants disobey. 

But Connor could easily be replaced. But he was autonomous in this investigation. But he was designed to work only for his mission.

All these justifications and contradictions took up too much space in his mind. He was the most advanced creation from Cyberlife. Perhaps being something more simple would have been easier.

Instability pinged up at him again. He wanted to dismiss those reminders, turn them off completely. But he couldn’t, it was just a part of his HUD. He self-tested regularly. Connor knew what he was and what he wasn’t, those notifications were  _ meaningless _ . 

“And that’s all the questions I have for you! Thank you for your time,” you said, faking enthusiasm, “Have a nice day!” The tired-looking lady nodded and closed her door. You climbed down the stairs of her porch, scanning over the list of people you had asked so far. Seventeen names stared back at you. It didn’t feel like much, but it had been three hours. Now it was 3. Way past your lunchtime. After your curt demand to go get food you had strode off back towards the car. To meet Collins, another ball of light in the DPD. He was enthusiastic, even as you explained how the deviant had got away. No wonder why him and Wade were such good friends. You had groaned like a teenager when Collins reminded you of the rest of standard procedure: statements. 

Satisfied with what you had, you figured it was time to pack up. Anderson was eager to agree with your suggestion to finish this case for today. He transferred his statements to you, presumably leaving the rest of the paperwork to you. It would have pissed you off, but Anderson gave you another satisfying mumble of ‘Nice work, detective.’ You couldn’t help the childish grin on your face.

“Don’t look so proud of yourself, dumbass,” Anderson scoffed at you. 

“Why, I have zero idea what you mean, Lieutenant! I am nothing but incredibly humble!” You dramatically raised a hand to your chest, giggling like an idiot at him. Anderson didn’t laugh, but he looked amused. Looks like you were finally getting somewhere. You climbed into his cramped car, packing away your notes and feeling Anderson settle into the driver's seat. Hanging your head out of the window you called,

“Tincan!” You heard the happy excitement in your voice and debated stifling it down again. You were talking to an android here, and you didn’t want this machine to think you had magically begun to like it. Connor spun on the spot, instinctively dipping his head to the side at your nickname.

“Get in, we’re getting food!” You yelled, holding the roof of the car whilst you leaned out. A ghost of a smirk was haunting your lips. 

“But, detective, I don’t eat?” Connor feigned innocence, tipping his head further. Luckily, Anderson was here this time to help you deal with the machine's weird antics.

“Us, dipshit!” he chimed in. Seems Connor’s jokes didn’t rub off the same on the Lieutenant. You landed back in your seat as it started heading over. As it opened the car door, both you and Anderson spoke at the same time.

“Fuckin’ androids.”

You gave a small laugh, finding the dynamic entertaining. Anderson’s praise really had lifted your spirits. 

  
  


“What do you want?” Anderson asked, unbuckling his seatbelt and picking up his wallet from the dashboard. 

“Whatever you're having,” You said, digging out your own money and handing Anderson a ten-dollar note.

“Alright. But you aren’t eating in my car,” Anderson warned and you rolled your eyes at him jokingly.

“Okay, okay,” you smiled.

The rain had kicked in now, filtering in through the spaces between city buildings. Anderson had driven you to an even more rundown-looking area. He had some friends here is what he had told you. You had just trusted him, eyes drawing to the neon 'Chicken feed’ sign on a food truck. It only had a few people sitting in pairs and trios. On this empty street, that was pretty lively. You stored your phone, ready to dash to the safety of a canopy on the truck. The air smelled of gravelly construction and cigarette smoke. It was murky and half-suffocating. But from the sounds of friendly chatter and occasional laughter from customers standing under the tables near the truck, the people seemed happy.

Ducking under your arm, Anderson was already at a standing table by the time you had jogged over. Connor was there too. Anderson didn’t say anything but a simple hand signal to a drink and a wrapped burger holding down your change. Flicking two fingers away from your forehead, you saluted him thanks. You picked up the cup, the cold frosting your already freezing self.The surprisingly not-cola flavor had you raising your brow the second you took a sip. It was still good, you just thought cola was the standard.

“What is this?” You questioned. Anderson gave you a little smile,

“Pineapple passion. I like it.” 

“Ooh, very quirky,” you teased lightly, “I’m likin’ it though.” Anderson grinned, focussing back on eating his food. You went back to scarfing it down. Connor leaned on its elbows next to you on the small, round table.

“Do you eat here often, Lieutenant?” It spoke. Anderson’s tone was surprisingly light towards the android,

“Most days. Gary makes the best hamburgers in Detroit.” You made a muffled ‘mhm’ in between mouthfuls. Connor seemed happy with the less one-sided small talk. 

“There’s a cafe, near the station, the owners are the sweetest souls around. Met ‘em after an assault at some diner nearby. You might know it, ‘Acoustics’, it’s all music-themed.” You suggested. Anderson shook his head. 

“Since you’ve shown me here, I’ll take ya there sometime then,” You smiled at the lieutenant, he hummed a small agreement. The Lieutenant's eyes had a sparkle of friendliness, you were close enough to see that now. Something about his demeanor, though brash, was comforting. He just automatically looked like a role model. He was a living disagreement, a messy torn up man that somehow was just naturally a warming idol for you. But m aybe you just missed your parents. You savored the hot food in your hand.

“Is there anything you would like to know about me?” Connor chirped and Anderson was quick to reply.

“Hell no! Well, actually yeah. Why’d they make you look so goofy and have that weird voice?” Anderson answered smartly. You stifled a laugh.

“CyberLife androids are designed to work harmoniously with humans. Both my appearance and voice were specifically designed to facilitate my integration.” The android's voice rose and fell, like something you’d see a news presenter do. You couldn’t tell if it had just missed the sarcasm in Anderson's voice or if it thought answering seriously would shoot back his snide remark.

“Well they fucked up,” was the lieutenant's curt reply. You snorted loudly, almost spitting out your drink. Laughs bubbled up and you hid your face.

“Sorry, sorry,” you waved, feeling the scanning eyes on your uncharacteristically joyful chuckles. When you stopped enough to look up, Connor looked confused and half dejected. That emotion didn’t last long though, as it moved to another train of thought.

“Can I ask you both a personal question?” You put down the last of your food. Androids don't ask personal questions...

“Why do you hate androids so much?” You felt the cold of the rain creep back into the air. And the space between each of you at that table grow further apart again. Your past clung back onto your back and you knew it was doing the same for Anderson. When you had first moved, in 2035, Hank had just lost his son. His grief was at its highest, his hostility too. It was a similar case for you, a different loss of course, but the same result. You never got to know each other past names. You answered this time, solemn with your voice,

“We’ve got our reasons.” Connor didn’t seem completely satisfied, it seemed more investigative now, but it was smart enough to not question further. The air was constricted but not frozen, you realized as Anderson spoke,

“Guess you’ve done all your homework then, right? You know everything there is to know about us?”

“Lieutenant, I know you graduated top of your class. Made a name for yourself in several cases and became the youngest lieutenant in Detroit,” Connor recited, “I also know you’ve received a lot of disciplinary warnings as of late and that…. Well, you spend a lot of time in bars.” Anderson gave the android a warning glare at the lilt of criticism in its voice. It was your turn it appeared, as the machine turned to you.

“You moved from a steady start in Maine. Took a bullet in an act of bravery and earned yourself good favor. You’re one of the younger detectives in the DPD and I know you’re treated like a senior despite this.” You relaxed, glad that it hadn’t dug into your life in Maine. You had already run from it all, escaped the suspicious look, and dealt with the stress of beginning over. You didn’t want to do that again because of some smartass pretty-bot. 

“So, tin can, what’s your conclusion?” You replied. It took a second to reply, keeping its eyes trained on you,

“I… think working with officers with personal issues and strong opinions is an added challenge,” it’s voice was sincere, heartfelt if it had one, “but adapting to human unpredictability is one of my features,” Connor finished. A fast and awkward smirk raised the corner of his mouth and he gave you a wink. It startled you, to say the least, as you processed what you just saw.  _ What the fuck?  _ Anderson kept his ominously calculating eyes on the situation.  _ What the fuck?! _ You smiled, giggling again. 

“Ya know, you could almost be a good drinking buddy.”  _ Stop,  _ you hit your wall. Its LED armband glowed brightly again. It smiled. And you bit your lip, realizing you were making the same mistake again. “I said  _ almost _ , android.” Connors' smile faded. Anderson’s gaze lingered.

This time the cold stayed longer. Starting to shiver, you gathered up your trash. You were mad. Mad you had ruined a nice moment in your trio. Mad at your inability to have some self-control. Mad that you were dooming yourself again. You had to leave before your defenses sprung up again and you ruined what progress you had made here. 

“I’m cold. I’ll be in the car,” was all you could muster before you hid under your arm again, dashing through the rain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Agh this is a slightly shorter chapter, I know. I wanted to take some slow time to build up the relationships though and I hope that worked! I'm not American and my knowledge of America is fairly lacking so please correct me if I say somethin' really dumb lolol
> 
> Again, feedback is welcomed! Thanks for reading! <3


	4. Rupert Travis  Pt.1 (Feat. The Nest)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A shorter chapter! I might end up combining this with part 2 once I get that out.

When the android and Anderson came to the car, you had stayed silent. Anderson's gaze was softer, still awkward and unsure, but gentle. Like he could tell where your outbursts stemmed from. That had really helped you tame yourself as the android behind you recommended a tip that had just come in. 

Now you were here. Watching the dull, dirty silver doors of an elevator slide back and reveal an almost black corridor. Suddenly those doors looked immaculate. A deserted hallway stretched before you. The carpet was torn and the original pattern was barely visible, most doors were boarded off and light from the windows did not help but reflect off the trash thrown to the sides. This was meant to be the top floor, but you could have mistaken it with the basement. The air tasted like old and lost potential. 

You took cautious steps forward, clenching your teeth when Anderson's voice cut through the dust,

“Connor!” You swiveled and saw that the machine had only just opened its eyes, “Ran out of batteries or what?” It explained something about ‘reporting to CyberLife’ and stayed in its spot. Not caring anymore, you kept yourself on alert. This place looked like so many of the other cases you had taken up. Bodies dumped in the rotting corners of Detroit, you half had yourself prepared for the intruding smell of a corpse again.

“Well, are you going to stay in there?” Anderson asked sarcastically, turning back around and heading down the hallway. Connor answered quickly, almost as if it was embarrassed,

“No. I’m coming.” You raised a brow at its high pitched voice. No. You weren’t in the homicide unit anymore, this wasn’t like any of the experiences you had prior. Connor proved that.

“What’s this about then?” You questioned, lone feathers catching your eye.

“Not much. Just that a neighbor reported that he heard strange noises coming from this floor,” the android answered.  _...What neighbors? None of the doors were usable.  _

Except one. And Anderson was already resting up against it. You waited on the other side of the door frame as Connor made it's clumsy way over. It really did walk like a piece of plastic, you thought as you watched it flatten out its suit jacket. Purposeful and goal-driven in its direction but an amateur in its method. Manufactured but organic in its messiness. It could have been charming, could have worked well with its easy-on-the-eyes face if you didn't see that damn LED every time you looked at it. 

You only realized you were grinding your teeth when Connor locked eyes with you. There was no point dwelling on your contempt. It was only one investigation anyways. One  _ whole _ investigation. That  _ could _ span weeks.

_ Fuckin' hell. _

  
  


Connor’s loud thump on the door had you back on your feet. 

“Anybody home?” it shouted, everyone listening attentively. No response came so Connor resorted to the guidelines.

“Open up! Detroit police!” Connor bellowed aggressively,  _ you almost felt intimidated.  _ Again, you sat and anticipated a reply.  _ Nothing. _ You were just about ready to leave, but the unmistakable clatter of panic came from inside. Someone inside was scrambling around all of a sudden. On autopilot, you pushed the android out of the way and looked to Anderson to make sure he knew what you were doing. He held his gun up, nodding at you. Your own was held close to your chest, gripped between two steady hands. You were the younger officer here, it just made sense that you’d do the physical work. Your foot crashed against the door, impact forcing a grunt out of you. Not that you hadn’t done this before, but you didn’t really expect it to work. You were happy to see that just as soon as the hard heel of your boot collided with the door it swung back and imprinted into the wall behind it welcomingly. Police academy had done you good. You steadied yourself and moved quickly into yet another ominously dark hallway. You threw the nearest door open and scanned the room. A windowless bedroom, but no deviant. Anderson followed your lead, pushing open the next door. He dropped his stance and moved to the last door at the end of the hallway. Connor met him there and you caught up quickly. This time Anderson took lead, nodding to you before smashing his shoulder into the door. It sprung open with a thunderous ‘crash’, the sound mixing with an unidentifiable, other sound. Or at least unidentifiable until a pair of feathered wings slapped you in the face.  _ Pigeons. Lots of ‘em. _

You could barely see the wood flooring between the layer of birds screaming on it. 

“What the fuck is this?!” Anderson yelled, frantic flapping and ‘coos’ almost drowning him out. A terrible smell hit you like a brick wall. It smelt like…  _ shit _ . It probably  _ was _ shit. “Well, it looks like we came for nothing. Our man’s gone.” Anderson said, chasing some of the pigeons out of the way. You moved slowly, watching your feet to make sure you didn’t stand on a bird. They weren’t as dumb as expected, flying away with a small squeal before you could trip on them. Connor wasn’t fazed, it walked as if there weren’t millions of creatures covering the floor. It moved straight towards a poster on the wall, watching it for a few seconds before leaving it. 

“Not over yet, lieutenant. We’re on the top floor and these windows are boarded too,” You deduced, attention still on the poster that the android had left, "Can't have gone far." It was an advertisement for a farm, something familiar yet irrelevant. You spent a little too long on running your eyes through the photo, everything was so vibrant in it and it stood out on the wall.

“The driver's license is fake,” Connor declared.

“Cool! Least we didn’t come for nothing.” Anderson replied. YOu paid no mind, eyes drawing to the downturned corner of the poster. Every other side was secured down perfectly, but this one looked discarded,  _ moved.  _ You tore the poster back from the loose corner. A crack in the wall revealed itself. Dark cavern holding a lodged plank of wood to make a makeshift shelf. Atop that, a small book was left. 

The leather-covered book wasn’t anything in particular, just a collection of poetry. Something you were sure an android would not enjoy. Metaphors and deeper pictures couldn’t appeal to logic-driven machines, could they? Over every page notes and drawings took over the page. Garbled nonsense. Perfectly drawn meaningless mazes. Whatever was here, had a lot of free time on its hands.

“Nice work, detective. What’d you find?” Anderson piped in from his corner of the room. You lingered over eerie phrases that repeated over numerous pages.

_ I am alive. _

“I’m not sure. A poetry book with notes in the margins. Definitely not human handwriting,” You observed. 

You pocketed the book, continuing your investigation. Connor was digging around the cabinets in the kitchen. It pulled open a reluctant fridge door, eyes scanning everything closely. This was the first time you had seen the detective robot being a detective, it was sort of intriguing. When it was done, it spared a quick glance at you, turning away to the only other room it hadn’t gone into before you could react. It seemed focused on its goal.

Connor entered the bathroom, immediately turning to the wall. You followed, stepping around the fallen birdcage on the floor. Scratching emerging from behind the door. You looked in awe. Obsessive scratching of ‘rA9’ covered the wall thousands of times, each one perfect and each one identical. Anderson entered last, not seeming as surprised.

“Any idea what it means?” He asked after a moment.

“rA9… written 2471 times…” Connor said slowly. You were shocked it could count so fast. You wondered how different the world could be with android eyes.

“The same sign Ortiz’s android wrote on the shower wall.” You stared at it, bewildered. Anderson hummed an agreement. Guess you weren’t in on this one.

_ “ _ Why are they obsessed with this sign?” Connor questioned. Anderson stepped around you, squinting at another large hexagon on the wall.

“Looks like mazes or something…” Anderson added, taking another scan over the wall before leaving the room. Connor took its own second before turning to the sink. Inside, you found something wet and gloopy.  _ Gross... _ Connor stepped up to the sink, dipping two fingers in without hesitation. You gawked at it _. _ Connor lifted its fingers to its mouth, licking the substance. You almost felt sick.

“What the actual fucking fuck, Connor! What the hell?!” You shouted, cringing terribly. Connor looked shocked, but it quickly regained his composure.

“I can run scans on substances in real-time. I’m sorry, I should have warned you.” Connor said, talking like it was reading from a script. Anderson's scoff came from the other room. You gulped, stowing away that sight to complain about later. Looking around for distractions, you found a small, flesh-colored, plastic circle on the side of the sink. Around it, blue blood speckled the sink. Your stomach dropped, recognition boiling to the surface. You held it up, Connor's face shifting into view. The circle matched the inside of Connor’s curse. 

“It’s LED is here. We definitely have a deviant,” Connor announced. 

New clothes and a piece of plastic popped off and they could just look like regular people. The scale of this investigation could be bigger than what you had on your datapad. You  _ knew _ it was. You had first-hand experience of how much of an ants nest deviancy could be.

You dropped the LED, feeling your fingertips burn with memories. Fuck, you missed Maine.

  
  


Not wanting to remember, you for once welcomed the presence of the android. 

“Detective, please watch me,” was all it did. Puzzled, you nodded and Connor set off toward a chair in the far corner of the room. You followed it slowly. Its head moved up, and you only just noticed the large hole in the ceiling.  _ There’s an attic?  _ You drew your gun, realizing Connor had found something. Creaking sounded through the silence and you shifted your hand on your gun.  _ There is something up there.  _ Anderson caught on too, moving closer with his own gun drawn. The noise halted and before you could react Connors back was pushing you over. You winded yourself hitting the ground, the added weight of Connor not helping. Anderson’s pained groan, squawks of birds dodging the mess, and frantic scrambling filled your ears. Disoriented and slightly overwhelmed you tried to sit yourself up. A leg stomped past you and you flicked your head around in time to realize the scramble was from an additional person.  _ It was the deviant!  _

Not caring to catch your breath, you pushed Connor out of the way and jumped up. The deviant had already taken off down the hall. You followed, skidding to a stop just before hitting the wall outside the apartment's front door. You used your free hand to launch yourself off towards the elevator. With a flick of the hand, the deviant threw a large metal shelf in your way. You didn't have time to stop and your legs crashed right into it. Tipping you over you caught yourself on  your palm, stopping you from hitting your head. Heaving large gulps of air you tried to get up again. Your shins were on fire, and your legs were tangled over the large frame.

“Y/N!” Connor shouted, finally swinging out the door. It vaulted the metal rack and turned around. Stopping for you, Connor heaved you up from under your arms. You kind of made a good team. The android gave you a once over, and you weirdly appreciated it. Not wanting to waste any more time, you pushed yourself forward, heading for the already bashed open fire exit. You only managed to fit one word between your strained breaths,

“Connor!”

When had you two gotten to a first-name basis?

  
  
  
  
  
  



	5. Rupert Travis Pt.2

You blinked away the rays of sunlight. Seems the weather had brightened up already. You were on the roof now. Great, what a safe environment to chase an unstable deviant in. Speaking of the deviant, your eyes caught the tail end of its coat as it vaulted over the edge of the concrete you were on. Leaping over a ventilation box you finally found the golden field of wheat just a small drop from where you were. Each calm crop was waving in the light breeze of sunny weather, the only real movement being the full-grown, man-like machine dashing through it. You trailed behind it, stamina starting to deplete. Luckily, Connor didn’t have stamina. It charged ahead of you, eyes locked forward. A wall stood at the end of the field, holding people back from a train track between two buildings. It looked daunting, but Connor persisted, relentless. It kicked up onto a bag of compost. Its other foot met the wall and it used it to spring over the track to the next building. Refusing to be left behind you ran headfirst towards the wall too. Using your feet as leverage you hoisted yourself up onto the ledge and jumped across. 

Now you were running through a greenhouse. It was crowded, full of android workers. They didn’t move out of the way. Connor, still in lead, had already sorted to pushing them out of the way. You dodged around a downturned rack of plants, no doubt that the deviant had flicked his damn hand again. Through a warehouse and back out into a field of purple plants, Connor was catching up to the deviants on the metal path above you. 

Just as soon as the pleasant smell of flowers hit you, so did _another_ _fuckin’ wall._ Connor was efficient, large strides over equipment left near the wall letting his push himself over on his palms. You followed suit, clumsily wobbling over the same pile and barely making it over. Running to the end of the third roof you were on, Connor dropped over the side. You felt your gut drop and your heart race. It glided over a glass roof, jumping off and landing hero style on a moving train. Like something straight outta an action movie. You were impressed for a second. But then you realized this was the end of the Connor line for you, you couldn’t risk following that, even if your dumb bravery was telling you to. 

“Holy shit…” Anderson gasped, skidding to a halt beside you.

“Yeah, holy fucking shit,” you awed, smile unknowingly gracing your lips. Connor waited for a balcony of the nearest building to pass it, pouncing onto it and climbing up to the deviant. It really was unstoppable when it had its sights fixed. 

You had to find a way around, and your best bet was to try and cut off the deviant ahead. There was a tight walkway over the large pit to your far right. You didn’t hesitate, gut feeling driving you onwards. At the foot of the walkway, you threw yourself down the two-meter drop to it. It wasn’t something they had taught you in the academy, just something you had picked up from your high school days, but your body moved on instinct. You tilted your right shoulder to hit the ground first, tucking your head out of the way. The hard metal racked itself down your back, leaving thumping pain down your body as you rolled out of your fall. Anderson Thudded down behind you, following you now. Climbing back up to the next roof you wove round another greenhouse, careful not to trip on the watering system. Human supervisors cussed you out as  you stomped over their crops, the most you could do was shout an unsteady ‘Detroit Police!’ back at them. Feet tiring and breath gone, you stumbled through open doors. You and Anderson stopped, scanning the areas frantically. You were in their path now. If the deviant had passed already or not you would have to find out. 

That answer came quickly. Anderson yelped in fearful surprise as you twisted to see the deviant force him off the roof. Luckily the Lieutenant hooked a hand onto the edge, stopping him from falling a definite 5 stories. You yelled yourself, about to go help your partner, but then your other partner, Connor, swooped in. It took its aim away from the deviant, for the first time since you crashed through that fire exit, to unnecessarily help a human. You could have lingered on that, felt weird about it. But you were more relieved than anything. Knowing that Anderson was going to be fine you pushed on to get the deviant. 

Finally, it stopped. No other roofs to flee to. Standing two meters away you trained your gun to its leg. It turned slowly to you, Cap covering its face as it clenched its hands at its side. It seemed stiff, afraid.

“Please…” It begged, raising its head to meet your eyes, “I’ve done nothing wrong.” You couldn’t look away, sad cerulean seas pulling hesitation out of you.

Its voice shook, his soul quivered.

“I just wanted to be free. You  _ know _ what they’ll do to me if you turn me in!” He pleaded, pushing the words out. 

“I-” You stuttered. What’s wrong? “You know-” It’s not real. “You know I have no choice.” His eyes widened, and his breath picked up. He held his hands close to his chest. Trying to hide away from you on the open roof. Like you were a monster, cornering him like prey.

Feels pretty damn  _ alive _ to me. 

It took a warning step back, fearful pants filling the silence.

“Y-you humans are all the same. You don’t give a shit, even if we tell you to your fucking faces,” you stashed your gun, pulling handcuffs out from your belt slowly, “What about me makes you think I’m not alive? What can we do to prove it to you? Where’s your damn humanity!” You listened with gritted teeth and a heavy heart. You couldn’t reply. What would you say? “I-” his voice pulled tight, cracking at the raw emotion it was pouring out, “I don’t wanna die.”

  
His words hit you hard. And his eyes twinkled in the clarity of the sunlight. A common sentiment, a reasonable one. You broke eye contact. You couldn’t even bluff him down. You knew if you got him he’d be in pieces before you even finished your shift.  _ But it's your job. And it’s an android, _ your rational side scolded.

Footsteps echoed through your thoughts, Connor and Anderson were coming, fortunately for your conflicted self. The lucky break you had turned sour fast, though. The sight of the other officers coming towards the deviant seemed to tell him this was final. His fearful demeanor disappearing to a background hum as determined sorrow took over. He laughed and defeated ‘Ha!’. 

“Don’t lie to yourself, you have a choice. You’ve got options.  _ Freedom,”  _ His depressed hate stung you. You took a step forward and he lifted his foot back. Oh god. “RA9 save me…” he mumbled, tipping backward off the ledge. You dove yourself forward, a pained scowl on your face as you tried to save him. You didn’t pay enough attention to notice that you were almost going to fall over the edge yourself until Connor screamed your name from behind you. Your hand scraped the deviants, his sad and scared face still watching your fruitless struggle. Arms wrapping around your waist and rolling you to the side so you landed on top of him, Connor caught you. The force of him hitting into you knocked the air out of you. You heard it. Even over the thudding of you being thrown away from death. A heavy clatter of a body hitting the railing of a balcony and the final crunch of the cold ground below. It echoed off the tight alleyway walls, repeating. Like it was trying to really drive the screwdriver into your head.

You felt sick. You did have a choice, could you have done anything differently? He talked like a human.  _ Felt _ like a human...

_Don't be stupid_ you growled in your head. 

  
  


Connor's hand patted your back. You were still laid over him, sprawled across his chest sideways. You cleared your throat, climbing off of him with a small ‘sorry’. Anderson dug his hands into his pockets,

“You alright?” You nodded, not entirely sure,

“Yeah, yeah I’m okay.” A hand went through your hair and you tried to catch your breath.

“It didn’t hurt you did it?”

“Bastard tried to kill me. But no, Connor helped me up,” Anderson explained, a hint of fondness lining his voice. Everything was still sinking in, you were dazed. But Anderson's mention of the android reminded you of what Connor had done for you.

“Thanks for the catch, Connor,” You blurted genuinely wanting to say it but stubbornness prevented you, “I don’t know why I did that, just kinda moved without thinking.”

“You have a selfless tendency to try and throw yourself in the way of other people's danger, don’t you, detective?” It commented, an appreciative smile making your heart feel weird. You chuckled. You became a cop to help people anyways. 

That crunch didn’t stop echoing in your head on the car ride back to the station.


	6. Cameron Feat. Russian Roulette

You bypassed Wade and avoided Gavin, who was sitting at his desk, and headed straight for the evidence locker. You felt out of it, ungrounded. Static hummed in your head as you reached into your jacket pocket to pull out the androids notebook. Even with the cover on his writing screamed at you.

‘I am alive.’

You placed his book on one of the shelves, entering the date on the screen just above it. He was just a case file and a serial code now. Guess you were right, he was in pieces before your shift even ended.

‘What about me makes you think I’m not alive?’ He cried at you again.

Your head hissed and you grit your teeth. You became a cop to protect lives but your entire career had you arriving once it was over. You always showed up when the hope had died out and they were already dead. The one time you hadn’t, it had ended the same anyway. 

A card was on the shelf above where you had put the notebook. You took a closer look. A driver's license. You recognized the face on the ID, the deviant you had just doomed. ‘Rupert Travis’ hung over the morbid identification. What about him made you think he wasn’t alive? Somehow having a name to his face made this so much worse. 

Your heart battled for control over your thumping head. Your eyes dodged the photo, trying to hide away from it. But you just found yourself caught to another android, or at least what was left of it, hooked to the wall. It had its legs missing, and its forehead had its skin peeled back, blue stains dripping down its face. It looked like it had been beaten on the head. You didn’t miss the deep scratches and dents in its forearms, circle burns standing out too. ‘What happened to you?’ your heart clenched. It was suspended on the wall by a peg in the back of its neck, strung up like bunting. You became a cop to save lives…

But it still had its bloodstained uniform on. A house android.  _ Android, _ your sensible mind emphasized over the clatter of Rupert’s fall.  _ Dammit! _ You were definitely doing it again, sinking your teeth into the fake drama of deviancy. Falling into the same trap, digging the same grave. You had to get out of here.

You didn’t spare time to talk to the officer that came in as you left. And you didn’t waste energy on Reed as he made some unruly comment on Connor either. You left the station, checking out for the night. 

After dumping your stuff on an armchair in the living room, the first thing you did when you got home was shower. The music you had on didn’t stop your mind from wandering and the water didn’t wash away your feelings, but you felt clean so that was fine for now. A cheap ready-meal left cooling on the table with half a glass of wine, you sighed in frustration.  _ Human _ deaths hadn’t caused you this much nausea since your first months on the force. So why did an  _ android  _ one do this? Was it because you saw it’s home? How it lived, what it endured and its lack of choice? Or maybe because you watched its end. The fear in its eyes as it fell.

But that was its own damn choice, you growled trying not to feel as guilty as you did. Fuckin’ androids. 

Connor dug its way into your thoughts too, an imaginary, overly-friendly smile already pissing you off. It was so goal-driven and persistent. It showed that well in its chase. But yet when you and Anderson had given it an unrequired side mission, it had stopped for you. It listened when you told it not to cross the highway, stopped to help you up when you recklessly fell over, and let a deviant in his grasp free to save Anderson. For something programmed for its own goal, it sure as hell wasn’t listening. It was starting to look like you had your own deviant on your hands. You felt anger boil up in you and you decided you'd keep your eye on that piece of plastic.

This was too fucking much for the first day on an investigation, you scorned as you stopped yourself from getting worked up over nothing. You slouched back on your couch, lazily flicking the TV on and dropping the remote on a small coffee table you had near you. With a small bite of food, that you could still barely get down, and a gulp of wine your anger subsided a little.

Connor wasn’t bad. It was friendly, effective, kind of attractive -but you refused to admit you thought that-, and useful. If he was human you were sure you’d be friends. But he wasn't a human, he was a machine and that’s where you started to become the problem. 

Mind wandering to Maine, you remembered your parents. You hadn’t spoken to them properly since your fight and quick move to Detroit. Three years. Three years and you still couldn’t call them out of shame. Your vision lingered on your phone that you had dumped on a shelf near your shoe cabinet, maybe you could do it now?

Then, as if the heavens had intervened to stop you, your phone lit up. Groaning you pushed yourself up and crawled towards it. An unrecognisable number, but you weren’t focused on that. Next to your phone, was a picture that you didn’t know why you displayed. Cameron, with his short golden hair and glittering green eyes poking his tongue out at the camera as he slung an arm over your giggling self. He was wearing that familiar blue bomber jacket and his signature guitar pick necklace. You fiddled with it on your neck. A photo from your late teens, when you were seventeen. A different life ago. You left the phone to ring. 

Your cousin, Cameron Felch. One of your first and still your best friend. You grew up with him, shared the same hobbies as him, and, at first, had the same beliefs as him. The whole area never saw you apart, everyone knew if they found one of you, the other was close behind.

Androids deserve better. That's what he had planted into your head as soon as he was old enough to form his own opinions. And you had thought the same. So every time he came running to you, fearful and dangerous deviant by his side, you helped him. You snuck out of your house at night without parents knowing to buy extra clothes and other things for those machines. Helped Cameron break into abandoned places to give them shelter, brought them games and other things to occupy their endless time. And made plans to help them to escape America, to places like Canada. You didn’t consider the potential damnation of your actions, didn’t think about the crimes you were helping Cameron commit. Even as you became a cop at 21 you didn’t care. You just sought to do what you thought was right and wanted to stay at Cameron's side. But with a class A felony on his record and 15 years of his life gone you wouldn't think that anymore. Caught harboring deviants and then hitting and killing an officer in what he claimed to be self-defence had uprooted everything and tore him away from you. You knew he didn’t actually do it and that that wasn’t how it played out. Cameron couldn’t hit anything, he couldn’t even say no to a machine. He probably took the blame for one of his plastic friends’ crimes. He was 24 at the time, he would be 39 when he got out. So much of his life was going to be spent in jail because of plastic and therium. 

After his arrest had scorched its way through your world your family was shunned by your neighbors and past friends. You always stuck with Cameron, people just knew you were in on it too. Who was going to protect the people if even the police officers worked with the thing they needed protecting from? They didn’t find any real evidence that you had helped aside from your old clothes, but Cameron falsely confessed that he had been stealing from you to save you.  _ That bastard. _ It meant that it didn’t officially affect your career. But you didn’t miss the suspicious glares and shushed whispers of rumors. Your family was scorned, all because of your existence.

All because of androids like Rupert. You didn’t know if you were angry at him, yourself, or the machines. Probably all of the above.

You found your way to your bathroom, leaning over the sink. A swing-out mirror you had screwed to the wall almost hit you in the face, and you angrily pushed it out of the way. A fire was burning.

But Rupert seemed so…Scared. So-

Gravity let the mirror droop back into your face slowly, and you didn’t control yourself. You hated yourself and Camerons dumb decisions and deviants and your emotions and- DAMMIT WHY DO YOU CARE ABOUT ONE DEVIANT? Your knuckles turned white with your grip on the edge of your sink. That stupid fucking mirror hung in front of you. You could see your watery-eyed self, showing you the truth of your hardened exterior. 

And Connor. You were such a dick, an uncaring human. You still had those roots of sympathy in you that Cameron had planted. You couldn’t help it. You cared, you really really cared when a deviant jumped just to get away from you. When an android smiled and made jokes with you and you hissed at him out of instinct. Why though? More than anything you wanted to just not care. You couldn’t understand why you did. After all of life’s cruel lessons? You hadn’t learned  _ anything. _   
  


Your fist smashed the reflection out of the way. It shot back, hitting the wall and shattering. Your knuckles smoldered immediately, and you slammed your hand down onto the counter next to your sink a bit too hard. Glass left a scratch on your palm and you pulled back, waking up a bit more. You had made a mess. Glass was everywhere and you were bleeding. 

You sighed, going to get some antiseptic and a dustpan, still prickling with emotions. You really missed Cameron, and just having someone to be close to. Fuck, I need a date, you thought as you dumped the glass into the bin. 

The doorbell rang out in your small home, so you made your way over to the door. Just the thing you didn’t want to see right now greeted you; Connor smiled at you, hand still next to the doorbell. 

“Hello, detective!” Connor beamed at you, cute smile still infuriating you, “Lieutenant Anderson is in the car, a new case has just come up and I’ve come to get you for it,” it articulated. You must have been the only detectives in Detroit, you cursed even though you knew this was a 24/7 job. You drew the door back further, stepping to the side.

“Come in, I need to get changed,” was your short demand. It complied without a second thought, stepping onto your welcome matt and investigating your house with its eyes. Connor found the picture first, and you threateningly watched the android as its LED processed something. It didn’t say anything.

“I… Tried calling. There wasn’t an answer though,” Connor puzzled, looking at your obviously switched on phone next to Camerons photo. You felt a blush come to your face as it looked like you had ignored it. You did the only thing your pressured mind could think of,

“That was you? How’d you get my damn number, android?” your hostility shone. The tin toy’s smile didn’t falter at all.

“I’m connected to data-”

“I know! I just-” You failed, trying to repress your prickly defenses. “I’ll save your number, alright? Then I can’t miss your damn crime calls,” you rested your hands on your hips, “But don’t do it too much or I’m blocking you. Got that?” Connor just nodded. You didn’t miss the scan over your cut-up hand. Or the quick pass over the unfinished and cold meal on your table. Or the dustpan left on top of your bin. It still didn’t say anything though.

At least these things know how to respect some privacy.

You locked your bedroom door behind you and stripped out of your casual clothes. Pulling your closet door open you fished out a black turtleneck with some simple jeans. Remembering to dress for the weather, you topped it off with a blue and white bomber jacket and your usual boots. The old and way more comfortable clothes were just left on your bed, a reward for when you got back. With a wanting final look at your bed, you returned to your living room. Connor was fixed on an electric guitar you had propped up against the wall. It didn’t turn around when it spoke, just moved its eyes to decorations you had hung up,

“Your decoration is very expressive and reflective of you, Detective Marsdon!” It spun around to face you. “And that guitar? What sort of music do you play?” Your fangs threatened to peak out again but you answered steadily,

“I usually like punk rock but I’m pretty flexible with my music taste.” Connor seemed happy he got an actual reply.

“Do you play?” Was Connors first thought. 

“Not for you,” you let out on accident, “And stop calling me ‘Detective Marsdon’ it’s annoying.” 

“What would you like me to call you instead, Detective Marsdon?” It questioned. You weren’t entirely sure if it was trying to mess with you again by using the long name.

“My name, dumbass,” You snapped, swiping your phone and keys up. Connor followed you to the door.

“Okay, Y/N!”

“Maybe not...” You grumbled, locking your front door behind you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PheW! So there's Marsdon's backstory! I hope it explains a lot of Marsdon's unnecessary bite towards Connor! And, ayeee, the first name basis is (sort of) here to stay!
> 
> Next is the Eden Club. With Gavin! Hehehe I'm so excited to write Marsodn's interaction with him.

**Author's Note:**

> Now I aint saying think Claire from Resident Evil when I describe the clothes, but think Claire.


End file.
